


I Know Myself

by xXCrimmieXx



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Additional Ryder, Alec Not Seen as Bad Person, Also Not Explicit in Detail for Them, Brief Mention of Sexual Assault in Past, Drack is Stand in Weird Uncle, F/F, F/M, Rape Elements Not Central to Plot, Sara is Gay as Hell, Sara is Good Big Sister, Sibling Elements, Slightly non-canon, liam is confused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 12:09:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18850795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXCrimmieXx/pseuds/xXCrimmieXx
Summary: Pippa has decided to take her chances alongside her sister in exploring a new galaxy. Trouble ensues, obviously.*Will write a better summary later, probably*





	I Know Myself

Crates aren’t comfortable. Sometimes one just has to look back on the choices they’ve made and one thing she could attest to with absolute certainty was that rivets, poorly melded edges, and the original contents of said crate poking into one’s ribs and ass should not be taken on willingly.  
  
‘This is where we are, though, and it’s a little late to turn back now,’ she thought to herself as she felt the ground disappear from beneath her. Her new roommates, large bags of dehydrated food, shifted off their neatly stacked piles and buried her further up to her chin. She wasn’t jostling, though so at least whatever thankless soul just became her unwilling accomplice had a steady stride.  
  
The sounds from outside where heavily muffled thanks to the thickness of the metal surrounding her and the prior air-tight design. Luckily, she had arrived just in time to drill several small holes around the uppermost portion of the box. It wouldn’t do to suffocate so early into her master plan. She remembered briefly the space hamster her brother had bought himself for his eleventh birthday only to lose it two months later and realize it had died in the airlock during their trip to Earth. She metaphorically deepened her silence; they continued to honor Buttons’ memory to this day as a testament to the fact that Scotty cannot and will not be capable of keeping another being alive.  
  
Her thoughts were interrupted with a thud as her new partner in crime placed her back on solid ground. Pressing the side of her head up to the miniscule holes she’d prepared, she could make out what sounded like a man muttering to himself. She couldn’t quite catch the entirety of the monologue, but it had something to do with having waited 600 years and zero-G rotation. Trying to imagine what scenarios could lead to those musings could have kept her entertained for most of her preplanned quiet fest until it was time to reveal herself, but there was more to be had. The faint whoosh of the doors had her pressing her ear even more forcefully to the side of the crate. Was he leaving?  
  
‘It would be nice to get better air access; crack the lid a bit maybe,’ she thought, but the universe was not so kind. ‘Probably female,’ she thought, ‘but also maybe not.’ Usually she would be thrilled at the new challenge of identifying voices under less-than-ideal circumstances, but the laser-cut edges of the food packs were digging into tragically uncomfortable places and dampening her investigative zeal.  
  
‘Just half an hour. Full hour max.’ If she knew anything about anything then she knew Alec Ryder wouldn’t waste any time getting out into the cluster and away from the people who didn’t share his steely enthusiasm for unexpected exploration. Alec was no diplomat. An adventurer? Sure. A sharpshooter? Absolutely. Anything resembling a legate? Definitely not. So, if things were to go according to mostly-carefully-laid plan, they should be leaving the Hyperion very soon and with that departure, her chances of being sent back to the cryo bay to hang out with Scott got smaller and smaller. All there was left to do was wait.  
  
~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~_~  
  
At some point during her speculation as to the methods behind turning pizza into a fine powder, courtesy of her new friends the ‘ALL NUTRIENT HUMAN FOOD REPLACEMENT’ packs, she had accidentally taken a nap. The screech of something relatively heavy across the metal floors very close to her woke her quickly enough with her barely keeping her composure enough to prevent bursting out of the box altogether. Judging by the lack of sensation in her carefully folded legs, it had definitely been more than half an hour. They should be well away from the central hub by now, so if whoever was making that noise would just lea-  
  
“All right, team, button it up. We leave in five.” The authoritative voice had her freezing impossibly still in her little hidey-hole. He was a man of many mysteries, so she didn’t doubt he would find her prematurely if she so much as took a deep breath. She wasn’t afraid of him, quite the opposite actually; but she had spent too much energy setting this up to have it ruined at the last second, so she braced herself against either side of the crate hoping to make as little noise as humanly possible for the next fifteen minutes. By then he wouldn’t be willing to turn entire shuttles around to drop her back off with Captain Dunn… probably.  
  
Breathing carefully, she waited past the ‘we’re all dreamers here’ speech and the shuttle doors sliding shut. Finally, a message came through the shuttle’s overhead comm from Dunn herself, “Good luck, Pathfinder team.” And she felt the shuttle leave the ground, though not long after a warning came over the comm to avoid whatever dark mass had damaged the Hyperion earlier and the shuttle shook with the force of the pilot’s correction.  
  
“Ryder,” she once again carefully pressed her ear to the side of the crate. Good, she got the shuttle with Sara. Lower probability of a lecture that will actually sting. “We didn’t have a chance to meet back in the Milky Way. Name’s Liam Kosta, security and response specialist.”  
  
“Nice to meet you, Liam.”  
  
She barely held back the snicker that bubbled up when he continued. Sara had definitely thought the conversation was over. She always got especially quiet and focused right before a mission. The authority of the paternal presence was probably not helping her nerves, but she replied anyway. “Sure beats reading the brochures.”  
  
Sara was saved by the pilots over comm alerting the team that it was time to breach the atmosphere. It wasn’t the first time she had shuttled into a planet’s atmosphere, but something didn’t feel right. The shuttle was jerking pretty hard. Actually, it was jerking hard enough to be moving the crate with her and the food packs inside it. With her comm powered down and SAM as offline as she could make him, she couldn’t get a read on the environment outside. Helmet would probably be a good idea. Snapping closed the airlock on the underside, she knew her breathing would be much more noticeable, so it was likely a good time to pop out of her temporary living space. At that moment, a particularly hard thud sent her crate crashing into another and, as luck would have it, she had shifted just enough during her eavesdropping to tip the balance and came crashing out of the unsealed lid onto the shuttle floor.  
  
“What the hell?” Liam’s exclamation came as she rolled over onto her back. She caught sight of Sara’s hand over her shoulder reaching for her rifle in her periphery and cracked a smile neither of them could see.  
  
“If you’re gonna lecture me, you should do it while the shock’s still fresh.”  
  
Hand off the rifle, Sara reached down and half dragged the stowaway to her feet by her stolen helmet. “How did you – how did you even get out of cryo?” No lecture then, huh? She could work with that.  
  
“Someone mislabeled me back in the Milky Way apparently. Or maybe the guy that thawed me just couldn’t keep a code series straight and woke up the wrong person. Either way, I heard Dad call for the Pathfinder team and thought since I heard Scott was out cold, another Ryder would suffice.” Smiling still, she raised her omnitool and turned the comm on. “What frequency are you guys on, by the way?”  
  
Sighing, Sara gave her the information and watched as she plugged it in. “Pip, Dad’s gonna kill you.” This time she let the snicker sound out through the helmet.  
  
“Yeah, that’ll happen.”  
  
“I’m serious, eventually you’re gonna get yourself in major trouble –“  
  
“Hey,” the guy behind Sara cut in. Liam most likely. “Don’t want to interrupt, but what’s happening? Also, the mountains are floating.”  
  
“Really?” She sidled past the still-shocked Sara to peek out of the window. The mountains were, in fact, floating; but even more interesting was the large structure in the distance pulsing with light. “Ooh, look.”  
  
A feminine voice came over the comm, “That has to be advanced engineering.”  
  
Her father immediately notified the Hyperion of the discovery. First contact already? Should be very interesting. “I wonder if – “  
  
Sara came across the comm from behind her, “Has anyone seen us?”  
  
“What if they’re not friendly?” She turned to quip back at Liam, but her father’s voice came across the comm again and ruined the moment.  
  
“We stick to contact protocol: no use of deadly force unless hostile intent is clear.”  
  
An exclamation came from the front of the shuttle and suddenly the shuttle starts to lurch, throwing the three of them into one another until the side tears itself away pulling both herself and Liam out, clinging to the very edges of the floor.  
  
“Hang on!” Sara called out to them, trying to grab at her hand, but the force of the pull had her spiraling away from the shuttle before she could think to reach out.  
  
Rapid descent detected.  
  
“Not helpful, SAM!”  
  
Potential landing site below. Slowing your acceleration will help with impact.  
  
“Shit,” quickly, she activated her jump jets hoping the upward boost would keep her from breaking her neck. She hit the cliff face hard, but landed intact. Terribly winded and immediately sore, but all the pieces were still there and, as far as she could tell, in their proper places, too.  
  
“Just fucking marvelous.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, I have a bad habit of starting things and then losing motivation to finish them. Maybe leave a little below if you liked it?


End file.
